AUSTIN, Texas-Patrick Christmas, a graduate student in computer sciences at The University of Texas at Austin, has been awarded $50,000 from Interactive Brokers Group (IBG), for winning its electronic trading Olympiad for colleges.

IBG, a global leader in electronic market-making and brokerage services, will also donate a matching prize of $50,000 to the university.

Starting with an account of $100,000 in phantom money, Christmas earned an additional $120,000 in 10 weeks using computer algorithms he developed for IBG's Interactive Brokers Trader Workstation Application Program Interface.

IBG created the Olympiad to highlight the growing need for engineers and computer science professionals in the financial services industry. The competition was opened to graduate and undergraduate seniors studying computer science or engineering in all North American colleges and universities.